Education Revolution

Tutor Spotlight: Our “courses open their eyes to different careers in tech.”

Meet Poonam – one of Fire Tech’s lead teachers. While her first priority is making sure that kids are well looked after and have a great week, it’s also to ensure students are challenged and feel part of our inclusive community of makers and creators. We want kids and teens to leave our programme feeling empowered to create with tech! Below, Poonam shares exactly how we achieve this.

1) How do you ensure campers are forming friendships when they join camp?

We encourage children to share their ideas among each other, developing their independent and social skills. We have team building exercises that include spaghetti and marshmallow challenges, forming the perfect square (yes, really!), building paper bridges and creating human shapes.

Through the team challenges we are encouraging the children to speak to each other, whereas they might not have, this ensures that no child is left feeling lonely. The children are never sitting down for too long, we have break out sessions for snacks and we go outside to stretch and play games.

2) What key skills do children leave with?

The children leave with a buzz of excitement, confidence and with an enquiring mind. Children build their resilience throughout the week learning that sometimes certain code does not work the first time, and it requires patience.

3) Some parents say “My child doesn’t identify as a “techie” will they enjoy attending a tech camp?“

Our tutors are trained to ensure that the courses are suitable for all abilities so that all students can enjoy the curriculum provided. Given that the class sizes are an 8-1 ratio, over a short period, students quickly build momentum and gain the confidence to get stuck in with their project. Also, through the team building exercises, the children begin to help each other solve problems before seeking the tutor’s support – this is how they begin to build their resilience.

The thing I love about Fire Tech is the energy from the children and seeing their excitement at building something they didn’t know they could create at the start of the day.

4) How do you see campers grow throughout the week?

The children see how exciting the world of technology is when you learn a few core principals. They become more inquisitive, begin asking more complex questions, and we start to see them be more creative in how they solve problems. Our senior students are often at a stage where they are trying to pick GCSE’s, A’Level’s and even degree choices, and these courses open their eyes up to the different careers in technology and if it’s something they’d like to pursue.

5) What do you say to the people who may believe that girls are less interested in tech, robotics and engineering?

It’s simply not true! Girls who come to our camps love getting stuck in and creating with tech. They are inspired and they inspire others. I encourage girls from all ages to come and join our community.

Fire Tech is the UK’s leading provider of tech education for young people. To date we have delivered more than 7,000 technology courses that includes coding, robotics and design. Courses are taught in small class sizes by the best and brightest tutors who inspire your children to dream big! Visit our course page to see upcoming courses. Scholarships available.